Zoo's endangered female Sumatran rhino dies

The death on Sunday of the Cincinnati Zoo's 9-year-old female Sumatran rhinoceros, Suci, pushes one of the world's most critically endangered species another step closer to extinction.

"It just kind of hits you like a semi," said Terri Roth, director of the Cincinnati Zoo's Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife. The zoo is the world leader in breeding captive Sumatran rhinos thanks to Roth's pioneering research at CREW.

The cause of the rhino's death has not been determined, but she was being treated for hemochromatosis, also known as iron storage disease. A necropsy was to be performed Monday. The results will not be known for several weeks.

Suci (pronounced SUE-chee) was one of only two Sumatran rhinos in North America. The other is her brother, 6-year-old Harapan, who is in Cincinnati.

The zoo had been preparing to take the unusual step of breeding the siblings in a last-ditch attempt to save the species, but had not yet done so. The estimated population of such rhinos in the wild is no more than 100. There are now nine in captivity.

Sumatran rhinos live in the forests of Malaysia and Indonesia. They are endangered because of habitat loss and poaching; their horns are believed to have medicinal value in some Asian cultures.

In 2001 in Cincinnati, a Sumatran rhino named Emi gave birth to a male named Andalas. It was the first time in 112 years a Sumatran rhino was bred and born in captivity. Emi and her breeding partner, Ipuh, then produced Suci in 2004 and Harapan in 2007.

Ipuh died in February 2013. Emi died in 2009 of hemochromatosis, which led the zoo to suspect Suci might also have the disease; she typically loses weight in the summer and gains it back in the fall and winter. "This fall, she just didn't come back," Roth said. In the last week or so, she took a turn for the worse.

Roth said the zoo will stay involved in the Sumatran rhino program, but it's unclear if breeding will ever happen here again. Regardless, the reproductive techniques pioneered in Cincinnati are being used overseas. In 2007 Andalas was sent to Indonesia's Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, where he sired a calf in 2012. It is the only place other than Cincinnati to successfully breed the species in captivity.

Malaysian officials had considered sending a male to Cincinnati to breed with Suci, but they were holding out hope that a female could be captured from the wild and bred in Malaysia. In fact, a female was captured recently, Roth said.